If you liked That ’70s Show, the American Pie films or Arrested Development you may like this

Our rating: ★★★★ FOUR STARS

Despite its epic cast, most people haven’t heard of or seen Wet Hot American Summer. The original 2001 film didn’t do particularly well at the Box Office, but it picked up a cult following, and Netflix have created a prequel series that we didn’t know we so desperately needed. This prequel series is very much designed to be watched after the original, as there a lots of jokes which you won’t understand unless you’ve seen the film. It’s highly advisable to watch the film (also available on Netflix UK) before the series, but you can still enjoy the show without having seen the movie. If you’re completely unfamiliar with the film, it basically focuses on a group of randy teenage councillors over the course of one day (the day on which the drama production is performed) at a stereotypical American summer camp. The series follows the same structure, and as many of the actors couldn’t pass for teens back in 2001, the joke is now even funnier, especially as Michael Showalter’s physicality has changed drastically over the past 14 years. A lot of people out there don’t seem to ‘get’ the humour of WHAS. The film took the piss out of stereotypical 80s films and the archetypal teenage characters that dominated the era. This parody, along with plain bizarre cult comedy, has been effectively continued in the series by Netflix, and the satire is perfectly captured as Lindsey (Elizabeth Banks) reaches a John Hughes-esque epiphany that teenagers are archetypes after all. And this is a prequel that does explain elements of the sequel. It becomes very clear why Gene (Christopher Meloni) is best friends with a talking can of vegetables. The origins of the ‘Higher and Higher’ song turn out to be vitally important. Gail’s (Molly Shannon) rocky love life and heartbreak is explained. All bases are covered, and Showalter and David Wain explain these elements with the most zany storylines possible.

Susie and Ben, aka the dream team

Rather impressively the entire ensemble cast has returned for the prequel, despite the various successes achieved over the last 14 years. We’re also treated to guest appearances from other huge stars such as Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig and Michael Cera. And whilst it was Andy (Paul Rudd), Katie (Maguerite Moreau) and Coop (Michael Showalter) that received the most attention in the film, the success other actors have achieved since 2001 means that both Banks and Amy Poehler have much larger parts, and Susie’s (Poehler) rousing speech regarding the origins of theatre is a highlight of the entire series. Whilst the humour of the film is brilliantly captured, and the storylines are as bizarre as ever, the series does have one negative. The show initially focuses on two young campers, with hints a first love will blossom, and there is a lot of attention paid to them in the first two episodes. Annoyingly, this storyline doesn’t seem to conclude, and it is the only disappointing part of the show, because it simply acts as an unfruitful filler. Nevertheless, if you’re into your cult films and fancy a laugh, I would definitely suggest watching both the film and the series.

There’s no denying that our world is getting smaller. Financial markets never close, overseas travel takes a matter of hours, and pop culture spreads in seconds. But literary translation still has a hesitant air to it, as if both readers and writers are wary of foreign literature. But this, too, is beginning to change, and Bloomers are leading the charge. Chief among the new translators are the now famous husband-and-wife team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, an impressively prolific duo who have translated almost 30 Russian classics in a span of roughly 25 years. The story of how they came to translation is equally impressive, if deceptively simple—they sat down to read a translation of Dostoevsky, realized it wasn’t very good, and decided to try and craft a better one. Despite having no previous translation experience and no training (Pevear had published a few poems and Volokhonsky studied theology, but neither had attempted a major translation or published a book) they placed their first translation with a small press and slowly built a readership. Slowly, that is, until Oprah made their translation of Anna Karenina a book club pick and shot the 19th-century novel back onto the best-seller list. Now the pair is included in the The Paris Review’s Art of Translation interview series; an excerpt of their conversation is available from LitHub.

Pevear and Volokhonsky made successful, late-blooming careers for themselves as translators of notoriously difficult Dostoevsky novels. The most striking thing about their translations was that they were able to preserve the roughness of Dostoevsky’s characters, their myriad voices and unreliable narration, in the English versions. But that feat, impressive though it is, pales in comparison to the work of Bloomer Dai Congrong, who is translating James Joyce’s late masterpiece Finnegans Wake into Chinese. The first third of her translation achieved best-seller status in China, but the other two thirds are proving . . . well, difficult. “May God give me the courage to finish it,” she’s said of the project. Her full struggle to translate the untranslatable has been profiled by the London Review of Books, and they, like us, wish her the best of luck.

Bloomers don’t excel only at literary translation—they’re strikingly good at invention, too. The BBC has compiled a few examples of writers who invent languages, and among the usual suspects (Bloomer J.R.R. Tolkien, who published The Hobbit at 45, for one) there’s also Anthony Burgess, who published his first novel at 39. The BBC pays considerable attention to his development of Nadsat, a Slavic-inspired slang used by the ultra-violent teens of A Clockwork Orange, which Burgess published when he was 45. As Hepzibah Anderson summarizes, “Language, as dystopian novels remind us over and over, is a barometer of a society’s health . . . [and] it’s reassuring to know that wordsmiths are still labouring to expand our vocabularies, and with them, our experience of the world around us.” Reassuring, too, that so many of these writers are Bloomers and that their world-expanding creativity is still a force reckoned with, even as the world grows smaller.

The world-expanding creativity of Bloomer writers and artists shows itself in other kinds of inventiveness besides the linguistic. There’s the work of Frank Herbert, for example, who serialized his first work at 35 but didn’t release Dune until his mid-40s. Dune is now 50 years old. In an article for The GuardianHari Kunzru makes the case that it was the era-defining text for the Age of Aquarius and even now has political significance in addition to simply being a great story (though our partners at The Millions would have to disagree with that last claim). Whether you like the science fiction classic or no, there’s no denying Herbert’s genius for world-building; his work redefined the science-fiction genre.

Then there’s the considerably less successful but still daringly inventive bohemian Bloomer Joe Gould, who spent his life composing what is likely the longest novel ever written, depending on your definition of “novel.” He worked for decades on a project he called The Oral History of Our Time and claimed to be writing down everything he heard, creating a “vital new literary form” that hovered somewhere between fiction and history. But Gould was also highly erratic, possibly suffering from hypergraphia, among a slew of other disorders. Though a few small excerpts of his work were published in TheDial and Ezra Pound claimed to have read at least part of the handwritten manuscript, for years no one was sure whether his full Oral History really existed. This month, in an essay for the New Yorker, Jill Leporeattempts to track the never-published Oral History and the eccentric behind the project, with interesting results.

Bloomers’ world-expanding talents of translation and creation also continue into other disciplines besides the literary, and CNN has organized a slide show of 30 musicians and actors “who had to wait forever before topping the charts or winning a big award” or who have yet to do either. Their list includes James Taylor—who just had an album debut at #1 after 47 years of releases—Weird Al Yankovic, and even Al Pacino. Though many of the names and faces in the slide show are likely familiar to audiences and listeners, CNN is quick to add a thoughtful note that for every one of the 30 Bloomers included, there are many, many more artists who are still waiting for the attention and praise they deserve.

One Bloomer who is frequently celebrated for her patience and late-in-life turn to creativity is Penelope Fitzgerald, who our own Evelyn Somersprofiled for Bloom. In a piece for LitHub, Jessica Ferriconsiders the work of Fitzgerald and her fellow Bloomer Jane Gardam and concludes that “English novelists of a certain age do it better.” We particularly appreciate Ferri’s diagnosis of the “Penelope Fitzgerald problem,” a possible explanation for her lingering obscurity: “Perhaps it is indeed the ability to write one’s mind, with no regard for trends. The ability to do so comes from the wisdom of life experience combined with the time and space to think—the freedom, rather than the problem, of the late bloomer.”

If you happen to be struggling with your own “problem” of a late-blooming “ability to write one’s mind” with wisdom and talent, we have a possible solution. Two Sylvias Press is offering the Wilder Series Poetry Book Prize, which comes with $1000 and publication, to female poets over 50. We hope this just the beginning of wider recognition of Bloomer writers, who, with their ability to translate between languages, ages and experiences while creating new ones, make the world a little bit bigger for all of us.

I heard on the radio that Weird Al Yankovic is going on tour. It reminded me that this song exists. I am so glad it does.

]]>https://theworldaccordingtozah.com/2015/07/29/weird-al-yankovics-mandatory-fun-tour-a-concert-review/
Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:05:54 +0000ZAHhttps://theworldaccordingtozah.com/2015/07/29/weird-al-yankovics-mandatory-fun-tour-a-concert-review/I’ve been extremely fortunate to have seen some of my “concert bucket list” items in my lifetime. A few years ago I was able to catch both KISS and AC/DC in the same summer, which completely blew my mind and knocked off #1 and #2 from the list. I’ve seen Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, and Def Leppard so I’ve had a pretty good ride (which is unusual only because I live in a relatively low populated area and big acts don’t come around too often).

One person who I never thought would come around FINALLY decided to do a tour of the area months ago. I never put him on my bucket list because I honestly thought I’d never be able to see him. Trust me…I never in a million years thought I’d ever be fortunate enough to see“Weird Al” Yankovic from the FRONT ROW!!!

I was actually shaking with excitement when my wife and I sat down. The view was spectacular and I couldn’t wait for the show to begin. I mean, I have been listening to Weird Al since 1983…and have ALWAYS been a fan (I even pre-purchased his most recent album on iTunes to ensure I got everything in a timely manner…lol). The seats were as awesome as I had hoped they were.

When the show started, Al appeared on the video monitors that highlighted the stage (one on each side and one on the back wall). In an identical gimmick to what he did onConan last year, Yankovic sangTackylive while walking through the back hallways of the casino, eventually appearing live in front of the crowd as the song was ending. What an unusual and extremely entertaining way to kick things off!

Next up was an original song from his latest album,Mandatory Fun. I’ve always been a fan of his original songs and can list a“Top 5 Originals”off the top of my head, but this one wouldn’t be one of those choices. Still…it’s Weird Al and it was live, so YEAH!!

Right after that came another song from the album, his latest in a series of “polka remixes” that appear on every album. This song was calledNow That’s What I Call Polka!and was absolutely incredible to experience live, primarily because of the tempo changes in the song. His video screens showed the songs being parodied, just in case people didn’t know.

At this point, Al left the stage to do the first of his MULTIPLE costume changes. To keep time moving along, the video screens would show clips from the past 35 years of Weird Al references in popular culture. You really don’t realize how much of a cultural icon Yankovic is until you see these different videos over the course of two hours and see just how influential he has been over the years. It’s incredible.

The next song is the only one that fell flat live. I think it’s really because the song itself isn’t very strong, and while I understand the need to play a Lady Gaga parody live in order to seem relevant,Perform This Waywas more of a visual experience than a musical one. There are easily a dozen other songs I would have preferred to hear live, but I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining…just being honest.

I couldn’t even begin to tell you how surprised and excited I was to hear the next song, the title track toDare To Be Stupid. I hadn’t heard this tribute to DEVO in years but knew almost every single word because, along withIn 3-D, this album was one of the classic Yankovic albums that I listened to repeatedly for months and months as a young teenager (I think we’re talking 1985/1986 for this album).

An absolute classic came up next:Fat. The video screens introduced the song with the first couple of minutes of the video, then Al came out in full fat costume. It was just a fantastic experience to enjoy live.

After another video package, Al came out to do another original from his latest album. This one, again, isn’t a favourite of mine but is still funny as hell because you can relate to it:First World Problems. This has become a fairly popular catchphrase in our household only because it’s hilarious to hear any of us complain about something trivial. We’re assholes like that.

My favourite track fromMandatory Funwas up next, along with props to help things along:Foil. This parody of the Lorde song“Royals”has become a popular live song because in the second chorus, Yankovic mentions wearing an aluminum foil hat to protect him from the aliens. At this point, various people from throughout the audience actually put foil hats on their heads. It was a little surreal, but I guess it’s all part of the fun.

A classic Al parody came next:Smells Like Nirvana. It was funny because he attempted to recreate the incredible video by having two gorgeous cheerleaders behind him. They never appeared again for the rest of the show, so I then wondered just what in the heck their job was other than cheerleading. This song has gotta be hard on Yankovic’s pipes with all the screaming and whatnot.

Next up was his first of two “compilation” songs, where he did a medley of some of his greatest hits. This particular set included some of my all-time favourites (Bedrock Anthem,Another One Rides The Bus, andeBay) in addition to some great fun likeParty in the CIA…

…Handy…

…Ode to a Superhero…

…Inactive(sung from a Lay-Z-Boy chair)…

…andCanadian Idiot.

After another video package, I saw the outfit that Yankovic was wearing and thought it looked a little different. The music started and I immediately recognized it asWanna B Ur Lovr, which is a “love song” made up of cheesy pick-up lines that sees Al go through the audience and “serenade” the ladies.

Being seated in the front row meant that Yankovic eventually made his way over to our direction. And yes, he ended up singing a line or two DIRECTLY TO MY WIFE!!

I was freaking out at this point, so between the lights and his moving and my jittery use of my phone, this is the best shot I could get of the moment:

Honestly, I think I was more excited about Weird Al singing to my wife than she was. I probably shouldn’t brag about that too much…

Next up was an acoustic set, which was a pleasant surprise. Yankovic proceeded to play four of his all-time classic songs from the 80’s (including the one that got me hooked on Yankovic to begin with):Eat It,I Lost On Jeopardy,I Love Rocky Road, andLike A Surgeon.

One of his newest hits was next and was one of the highlights of the night, simply because he came out on his Segway and proceeded to CRUSH the song: White & Nerdy!

Another video package aired and Yankovic was ready to keep things going with (arguably) the most popular song from his most recent album:Word Crimes(a parody of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke). I’ve said that Yankovic is a musical genius and I stand by that comment. All you need to do is watchthe video for Word Crimesand you’ll understand what I mean.

One final video package aired and it was time for one of his biggest hits:Amish Paradise. All band members donned big-ass beards for the performance and it was definitely a crowd pleaser.

At this point, Al thanked everyone for coming and left the stage with his band. Of course, at this point every single fan of his knew that this wasn’t the end and knew exactly how the show as going to end. Sure enough, Yankovic and his band came out dressed-up in their Jedi outfits fromStar Warsto singThe Saga Begins. It’s funny because I have always disliked the original“American Pie”by Don McLean, but I absolutely LOVE singing this version.

The last song of the night was the one EVERYBODY was waiting for (and the lightsabers in the audience confirmed that). It was never released as a single (as far as I know), but for whatever reason his parody of“Lola”by the Kinks has taken on a life of its own and is his official closer every single show:Yoda!

***********

To say that I enjoyed this concert would be a massive understatement. My face was hurting from smiling so much once it was all said and done. Thankfully, Sunshine enjoyed the concert, as well, even though she’s not a massive fan like me (she enjoys him, but that’s about it…lol).

“Weird Al” Yankovic is, indeed, a cultural icon who still,at 55, puts on one of the most incredible live performances you will ever see in your entire life. If you ever get the opportunity, I couldn’t imagine recommending seeing Yankovic live as much as I am right now. SEE HIM!!

If you weren’t singing to that, then you obviously didn’t have an annoying teenage brother at any point in your life. I did, (sorry Tay) and my husband was one, (sorry Davey) so I know quite a few lyrics to songs by Weird Al Yankovic. Today’s post is a prequel to tomorrow’s vlog about the deliciousness of “Milk’s Favorite Cookie”. The OREO.

Growing up, I never really cared for OREOS. I know, shame on me! That was hard for me to admit just now. My best friend only liked the cream center, and I only liked the cookie part, so we’d split them that way. You can’t be married to David though, and not pick one up to snack on here and there when there’s a constant flow of them in the cupboard. David loves them, and now I love them! He makes sure he gets them almost every time we go to the grocery store.

A few weeks ago he and I had a chat about finances and decided to cut out unnecessary things from our budget to save some green. Later that night we headed to the grocery store for some necessities. We had hardly made it through the sliding doors before a giant display of such sandwich cookies were before our eyes. David parked the cart immediately in front of them and looked around nonchalantly. I was really confused as to why we had stopped. When I asked him what he was doing he avoided my gaze and smiled. We stood there for a full minute before my two year old simply grabbed a bag of OREOS and put it in the cart, then David began pushing us along once again. I laughed and rolled my eyes. I tried to be the voice of reason and convince him that cookies were NOT a necessity, then guilt-tripped him about brainwashing our children. Yes, we still bought them. And as much as I complain, I love that David is this way. He forces me to lighten up and makes me laugh! ……and buys me OREOS.

So now I’ve got to ask. How do you prefer to eat your OREOS? Are you a milk dipper? David likes to put a fork between the cookies into the cream, then dip it in his milk for a few seconds, then eat it. I, on the other hand, do NOT like crumbs in my milk. I also like my milk really cold and I feel like dipping cookies into it makes it warmer. So I take a bite of cookie, then drink a little milk, then repeat.

And in case you didn’t have an annoying teenage brother, here’s the song you’ve been missing out on! Now, every time you bite into an OREO you’ll be singing! You’re welcome.

Oreo addict, SHF

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Tue, 28 Jul 2015 23:10:51 +0000Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazettehttps://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/celebrity/just-for-laughs-a-banner-year-for-veterans-and-newbies-alike/On the downside, Amy Schumer didn’t show up to the 33rd Just for Laughs festival, which wraps Tuesday night. Then again, she had a good excuse: she was promoting her movie Trainwreck.

In fact, Schumer — a frequent Just for Laughs performer — was about the only big name on the contemporary comedy scene who didn’t make it to the fest this year. Talk about a wealth of talent: Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Bill Burr, Patton Oswalt, Margaret Cho, Sebastian Maniscalco. And how about surprise guests Aziz Ansari and Louis C.K., who showed up last weekend? The latter performed six sets on Saturday.

Anyone who doubts Just for Laughs is the biggest comedy showcase on the planet would do well not only to check with fest patrons or the media, but with the comics themselves. They don’t have to be enticed to come here — they want to come and perform among their peers as well as for the fans.

But the festival is about much more than catching the big names in the business. It’s also about catching the new faces destined for greatness.

It’s a blast to touch base with the latest inspired ravings of Chappelle, Hart, Burr, Oswalt, Ansari and C.K., but it’s also a thrill to see the strides made by the newbies.

Ronny Chieng performs during the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal on Wednesday July 22, 2015.

Then there were the familiar faces we were seeing in different contexts. Like Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update anchor Michael Che, ex-Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, current Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj and soon-to-be Daily Show host Trevor Noah. Like Silicon Valley’s T.J. Miller. Or like Maniscalco, who did his solo show Aren’t You Embarrassed? to sold-out houses for a week.

And how about our homeboys? Mike Ward took over the reins of the Nasty Show with great panache. Franco vedette Rachid Badouri made his anglo debut in glorious fashion. And a special nod to comic/magician David Acer, who drew the short straw at a gala and had to follow Jim Breuer, one of the highest-energy acts in comedy, and still managed to get guffaws.

Can’t recall any prior Just for Laughs festival with such a consistently solid standup lineup. Sure, there were those who stiffed and there was, as expected, an inordinate amount of commentary on Bill Cosby and Caitlyn Jenner. But the vast majority of wits were on fire. This speaks well for the state of standup and its future. We are witnessing some of the most imaginative comics ever to have hit a stage.

And how about this year’s hosts? Not only a star-studded bunch, but most exceeded expectations. Sir Patrick Stewart and Alan Cumming — the two OBEs (which has to be a first for any festival) — brought different repertoires. The former, literally a knight in shining armour, brought an element of spaciness, though not of the Picard variety. The latter displayed his singing prowess — and provided a rather un-comical PSA on foreskin activism. Jane Lynch also showcased her crooning, but left some audience members yearning for her to do shtick. The perky Ellie Kemper gave it her all: she sang, she danced — and she did shtick.

Jane Lynch performs her first standup routine as gala host at Just for Laughs festival in Montreal on Wednesday July 22, 2015.

Wanda Sykes and Howie Mandel did what they do best: standup. Norm Macdonald did what he does best: winging it with his standup, but not nearly with the same intensity as Sykes and Mandel. And Noah performed one of the most brilliant sketches of the fest, a hysterically provocative deconstruction of his countryman Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial; he should acquit himself well in taking over from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.

This year also marked major diversification for the festival. For the first time, Just for Laughs followed the lead of the jazz fest and staged a giant free outdoor event, and it was a winner, featuring Weird Al Yankovic. Tens of thousands were there, which will look good for the fest’s bottom line when it comes to attendance. More to the point, this concept of outdoor musical comedy really worked. Even those not previously enamoured of Weird Al had to come away impressed with his talent and energy level — the latter rivalling that of Mick Jagger.

For something completely off the hook, there was a staged reading of The Big Lebowski, conducted by Montreal-born director Jason Reitman. He managed to conscript Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender — already in town shooting X-Men: Apocalypse — plus Dennis Quaid, also here on a shoot, and festival performers Oswalt and Miller. The crowd at the Olympia went gaga. Expect another script-rendering arranged by Reitman for next year’s fest.

A new wrinkle this year was an evening with the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Mike Myers, the ex-SNL trouper and Canuck star/creator of Wayne’s World and Austin Powers. He chatted with current SNL trouper Taran Killam, and the result surpassed expectations: it was witty, warm and revealing.

Mike Myers receives an award on Friday, July 25, 2015, at the Just for Laughs festival.

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However, some attendees were unclear on the concept that this was not a comedy show — nor was it billed as one — and that Myers wasn’t about to re-enact his roles as Dr. Evil and Shrek.

There was a similar misunderstanding among some who expected Neil Patrick Harris’s Circus Awesomeus — despite its title — to be a standup show and not a variety spectacle. All the reports leading up to Harris’s closing galas of this year’s festival had indicated this was to be a circus event, and it was awesomeus on every level. Doogie Howser finally got to fulfil a lifelong dream to run away and join the circus. This was the grandest spectacle ever staged by the festival — nothing ham-fisted, nothing cringe-worthy.

Not only did Harris hand-pick a coterie of wacky jugglers, illusionists, sword swallowers and clowns, he proved to be the quintessential host. Plus, he did magic, sawed a woman in half and, most awesomeus of all, he did aerial acrobatics, which went above and beyond the call of duty.

Harris has hosted all the big awards shows — some better than others (hello, Oscars) — but his work here puts him on a level all his own. Ed Sullivan would have been blown away.

As usual, my major gripe was that pretty much all the shows were bunched into the last week of the festival, making it impossible to take them all in. Then again, better a feast of plenty.

I leave you now with this pearl of wisdom on the absurdity of existence from Dana Gould, delivered at Cumming’s gala: “I’ve seen far too many bald men with ponytails to expect life to make any sense.”

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Sun, 26 Jul 2015 16:21:51 +0000Christopher Hurthttps://perryviking.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/need-to-read-again-032/At Laser Rangers two weeks ago the theme was “The world will end in Fire,” so we watched The Core and Pompeii, and these dog days are a Word of the Day at Dictionary.com – fumarole: a hole in or near a volcano, from which vapor rises.

A Excessive Heat Warning has been issued for Johnson County, Kansas until Mon, Jul 27 9:00 PM CT

I had agreed on Friday evening to Sunday and Monday night, which is before I might visit a friend and watch anime until early on Monday morning, when I need to be at work again at 11:00, yet I became ill, and went home. I had been pushing myself a little too hard.

Yesterday night, Cards against Humanity continued to have great replay value. While in my front pocket, my key fob did not have to travel far to reach crushing depth, thus my car can never possibly embarrass me as much as I can embarrass my car.

]]>https://hpharman.com/2015/07/25/the-30-minute-youtube-procrastination-playlist/
Sat, 25 Jul 2015 11:11:08 +0000HP Harmanhttps://hpharman.com/2015/07/25/the-30-minute-youtube-procrastination-playlist/Delicious, diverting and just a little bit naughty, procrastination is the adult equivalent of skipping class to hang out in the park with your friends and a bottle of White Lightning. It starts with an innocent email check. Then I’ll just check in on Facebook. Then you have to check Twitter because you can’t check Facebook without checking Twitter (this logic applies to all social media channels you operate on, so next will be Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on).

Then I read the news. When I say “the news” I mean the Daily Mail. And when I say “read” I mean more look at the pictures. And when I say “pictures”, I mean the sidebar of shame. Then I check my email again and check what’s happened on Twitter while I was staring at the sidebar of shame. That’s when my attention wends it’s way towards YouTube. At which point you might as well kiss goodbye whatever it was you were hoping to achieve.

Now, I’ve noticed that my YouTube-hopping has a way of meandering to some regulars, old friends which combine an enviable double-bill of time-wasting and hilarity in a few minutes (or seconds – Chicken Vine, this is you). So without further ado, I would like to invite you to join me for 30 minutes of my favourite YouTube hits. This is my 30-minute procrastination playlist*.

* Technically this playlist is 31:08 long if you only watch up to the end of Tim Minchin’s speech on the South Bank Sky Arts award. If you watch the whole clip then the playlist is 34:40. Sorry. Not sorry.

– Overnight, the WWE.com website removed ALL references to Hulk Hogan. He’s no longer in the Alumni section, WWEshop.com is no longer selling his merchandise, and he has been removed as a judge on Tough Enough. At this point, though, nobody seems to know exactly why or what is going on. Hogan tweeted the following last night:

In the storm I release control,God and his Universe will sail me where he wants me to be,one love. HH

The only rumours going around are that a video of Hogan has surfaced with him going on either a racist or a bigoted tirade of some kind. But if WWE has gone to this kind of length to remove Hogan from their organization, then it HAS to be something major. I’m almost afraid for Hogan at this point…just what in the world could it possibly be that would be THAT bad???

I’m sure there will be MUCH MORE on this over the coming few days.

**********

UPDATE

Wow…I didn’t realize it would be such a racist statement. I think it’s safe to say this guy’s career is over.

– I don’t know about you, but I’m confused about the entire Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker situation that’s taking place at SummerSlam. Yes, it’s a massive match for the WWE’s second biggest PPV…but it just came out of nowhere just as Lesnar was in a very intriguing program for the World title. It’s a babyface gaining revenge on a babyface and preventing him from winning the title. I just don’t quite get it. And really…were we all clamoring for a rematch? The first one wasn’t really a barn-burner. While this one will have a LOT more fan interest and crowd heat, I just don’t know how they’re going to elevate things. It’s just a weird situation.

– I’m absolutely shocked that Patrick was eliminated from Tough Enough this past week. I mean, I realize that the guy may have rubbed people the wrong way with his arrogance, but he’s the only REAL future superstar in the group! I mean, the people they chose for this is crazy. The lack of passion and lack of personality blow me away. ZZ is a joke. Tanner is a joke. The girls care more about being in a cat fight than they do about wrestling moves. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know who picks these people for the show, but they need to stop picking people who don’t stand a chance in wrestling. Pick people with skills AND personality. Is that so difficult?

– I haven’t enjoyed a James Bond movie in years. No offense to Daniel Craig or anything, but I just don’t buy him as Bond. I realize the series has done quite well with him in the role, it just doesn’t do anything for me. I mean, when I watch the new Mission: Impossible trailer I get excited. When I watch the new James Bond: Spectre trailer, I shrug my shoulders and say “meh”.

– I don’t care how big and strong you are, if this happens while you’re in an airplane, you’re shitting yourself…just a little.

– Nikki Bella needs to stop running her mouth about how she’s the “next John Cena” or the WWE’s version of Ronda Rousey. It’s ridiculous. There are a half dozen Divas from the past 15 years who would have easily run circles around her, and there are three or four Divas now who deserve the title more than she does. The ONLY reason she’s held onto the title this long is because of who she’s sleeping with and who has the current record for longest championship reign. Nikki Bella’s a joke. She’s an attractive woman with a shitty personality who doesn’t connect with crowds as a babyface OR a heel, yet she’s pushed as champion and delivers sub-par matches at best. I just wish she’d move on already. She bores me.

– Is ANYBODY interested in watching that new Fantastic Four reboot? In a movie landscape where you really need more than just an “okay” plot to grab the attention of the public (not to mention an over-saturated super-hero market), I just don’t see a lot of success for this movie.

– I’m a little surprised at the reaction that Hype Bros are getting down in NXT. I thought they would be more into actual wrestlers than schtick-y one-trick ponies. Mojo Rawley has one of the worst gimmicks I’ve ever seen. If he’s ever going to develop and grow as a performer, he needs to dump that gimmick ASAP. And now he’s with Zack Ryder as a tag team…who can’t seem to get over his internet fame from four years ago. Putting them together as a team, though, is pretty smart. It’s smart in the sense that Rawley can use Ryder’s experience to learn from. It’s smart in the sense that Ryder now has something to do on a regular basis that means something. It’s also smart because a tag team can hide both of their negatives and showcase their positives. I don’t know if I see big things for them (i.e. tag team gold) and I really dislike both of their gimmicks, but for now it’s a win-win situation.

– I’m STOKED because I finally, after 32 years of fandom, get to watch my idol perform live tonight. “WEIRD” AL YANKOVIC is in my city and I’ve got FRONT ROW SEATS, BABY!!! I’ve been a superfan of this guy since the first time I saw this video back in 1983, and it’s my Song of the Week…

Starting off like many pop-culture junkies, I began as a shy 11 or 12 year-old skirting around the aisles of the video-store. In those plastic VHS tapes, a ticket to all of your dreams– living without “really living” as it was hanging on a stranded-rock of low, grungy ambition and asking the question, like so many– if I could ever work on films someday.

You know, be the shy, sheepish recluse hiding-behind a type-writer or otherwise a dream-job of pure whimsical creativity outside of hard, drudgerous work.

Think as you will, as a naive young man– but gradually the excess of self-consciousness disappears and you realize you’re in the struggle for it just like anyone else.

Film, by nature– is a highly-collaborative medium that requires a lot of follow-through and a good, strong back to stand there.

I don’t know, to otherwise be a kid with a video-camera and asked to devise something– anything– as you get over that initial threshold of laziness. Film takes a lot of study, especially to get the ole’ technical-side down and of course, they all make-it look “easy”, of course.

There before you sits “the blank page” or just “front-lens view” of ordinary life, but to really reach inside and come-up with something creative. You have to be a mini-general and somewhat of a visionary over this miserable scrap of a blank monitor or actual film-celluoid.

As they say, your cast & crew will hate you in the end, but that’s what it takes to get anywhere beyond the world of fanciful dabbling.

So there I would be with my Super Nintendo games and old Stephen King books as it was so much easier to be a decadent consumer– or allow the entertainment come to you. Evidence of personal investment, I guess– as it takes ascending levels of expertise to hit the professional “big time”. But otherwise I was a lone, isolated little dot– stranded with my thoughts and begging of the future– for life to get good.

Life changes– or maybe you just “get busier” so you forget what your original angst was all about. Otherwise, life would stand “perfectly still” and feel much like that waiting room in Beetlejuice. Hurry-up-and-wait. . . . . but wait for what?

The time to be is now, the place to be is here. Lydia in the movie wandered “if being dead” would make existence that much more tolerable. Well, no matter where you go– there you are. And unless you wanted Beetlejuice to try to arrange something junky and illicit, “this is all there is” though all the answers– if on t.v.– can’t solve much.

Fast talk and the greasy handshake– we’re so much better-off learning to help ourselves and put in that extra bit of sweaty, unpleasant exertion. Now– do it a million times and stretch-it-out over years and you might actually have a film or writing career.

Striving as always– and pleased for the dreams of fellow-travellers, write-in to share your opnion as we all bask out in the open “like a snowball in hell”. Until next time, don’t sign any written contracts you don’t understand– as a deal’s a deal, a bargain a bargain– bless my soul and self to keep– or Beetlejuice will take-it away from you and probate court.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned. . . . .

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Wed, 22 Jul 2015 07:02:16 +0000Steve Faguy, Montreal Gazettehttps://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/just-for-laughs-polka-and-classic-hits-from-weird-al-in-free-outdoor-concert/With 27 minutes to go before Tuesday night’s Weird Al Yankovic concert at Place des Festivals, it was starting to look like the worst-case scenario was coming true: annoying, heavy rain. After a few minutes, things got better, and then much worse.

Fortunately for those wearing Hawaiian shirts or aluminum foil hats, the rain only ruined the first few minutes of the hour-and-a-half concert. And it didn’t seem to scare off too many people.

Many of those in attendance weren’t even born when Yankovic released his debut album in 1983. But while he may be a star of the 1980s, he’s more popular than ever. His last album, Mandatory Fun, was his first to hit No. 1 on the charts.

So when Yankovic took the stage and shouted “Are you ready to polka?” the crowd drowned out the rain with its cheers. The man synonymous with musical parody started with a polka medley from his latest album, and followed it up with classic hits, each wearing a costume more ridiculous than the last: a purple octopus suit for the Lady Gaga parody Perform This Way, a fat suit complete with prosthetic second chin for Fat. The crowd loved it, just as it did the videos played during those elaborate costume changes, a mix of Yankovic’s many viral videos, random clips from movies and seemingly every time someone on TV mentioned his name in a joke.

Anyone trying an estimate of crowd size Tuesday night is probably pulling a number out of thin air, but the audience filled every corner of Place des Festivals, and easily numbered in the tens of thousands.

The pace picked up as Yankovic did medleys of songs with simpler costumes, like Handy and the 1980 classic Another One Rides the Bus. He donned a red-and-white maple leaf blazer for the Green Day parody Canadian Idiot. The crowd ate it up.

Which brought us to the hit Eat It. But with it, music’s oddball threw us a curveball, singing the song not to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Beat It but to Eric Clapton’s Layla. The unplugged version.

He followed that up with I Lost on Jeopardy, I Love Rocky Road and Like a Surgeon in styles that couldn’t be further from the familiar.

This is Weird Al, after all.

After crowd-pleasing hits White and Nerdy, Word Crimes and Amish Paradise, Yankovic said he was done, leaving the stage James Brown style with a cape draped over his shoulders. The crowd wasn’t buying it.

Weird Al Yankovic performs Fat during an outdoor show at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal Tuesday, July 21, 2015.

He came back to do Yoda, during which he did the usual big concert stuff, getting various sections of the crowd to cheer, and having the crowd sing the chorus. (“Everybody sing it! Okay, now just this guy.”)

And then he and his band sang a bizarre medley of unfamiliar songs that at one point included Frère Jacques.

This is Weird Al, after all. We didn’t understand it, but we loved it anyway.

Big, free outdoor shows are common at the Jazz Festival and Francofolies, while at Just for Laughs, outdoor stages are rarely used for big names.

But Weird Al isn’t just another comedian. The 55-year-old has defined the genre of song parodies so successfully that he’s constantly credited with songs he had nothing to do with. And he’s the only artist on the planet who can perform a big-draw music concert that’s also a comedy act.

“As we were doing a deal to put him indoors, a few people on my team were in front of me and said ‘we should definitely put this outside’,” explained Robbie Praw, vice-president of programming for Just for Laughs, whose first experience with the festival was going to see Yankovic at the Old Port as a 15-year-old in 1996.

“It was an opportunity that was too much to pass on,” he said. The festival won’t get ticket revenue, but the promotional value is astronomical.

Believe it or not, the festival thinks it could still use promotion, even in Montreal.

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Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:45:23 +0000DRAhttps://universalhumdrum.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/themandatorytour/Yesterday, July 20th, I had the opportunity to go and see Weird Al Yankovic live at Centennial Hall in London Ontario. I have been an Al fan since 1992 when a highschool friend gave me his cassette tape (I know right how old am I) of Off the Deep End to listen to.

From that moment on I was hooked. I bought my on copy eventually, and own a copy of everything from Off the Deep End to mandatory Fun, Weird Al’s latest release.

If you ever get the chance to see Weird Al in concert, I highly recommend going. He works clean enough that young children could go and watch. (If my son was older I would have taken him, but less than 2 years… you get the idea.)

I have a few pic’s to share, not many, because I followed the no recording device rule. That is just proper theater edicate.

My head-gear for the night.

MC at the VIP Party before the show.

A diverse group, these folks age from 5 to 65 is my guess.

Me, don’t like the expression fool you, I had a blast.

VIP swag.

My only regret is that I didn’t find out about the tour stop in London sooner, I would have loved to get the package above mine which included a meet and greet with Weird Al himself (First World Problem). Over all though if I had a bucket list, this would have been one item crossed off for sure.

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Tue, 21 Jul 2015 10:48:12 +0000Staff Writerhttps://khitschicago.cbslocal.com/2015/07/21/turntable-tuesday-video-black-or-white-by-michael-jackson/Remember the video for the song “Black or White” by Michael Jackson?

It featured video morphing technology in it that really hadn’t been seen all that much until then.

It also featured a post video dance sequence that caused a stir because of it’s content.

The song entered the charts at #35, then jumped to #3 and was #1 the next week!

Here’s a little known footnote about this song:

Much like the parody that “Weird” Al Yankovic did of Jackson’s song “Beat It” called “Eat It” he also did a parody of this song.

It’s was called “Snack All Night” but we never got a chance to hear it! It was never commercially released.

We have been to the Sands Casino stage in Bethlehem three times. The sound isn’t great, but it’s a close venue and that’s where we saw “Weird Al” from row three, so it will always be awesome to us.

But just a few blocks away there is the Steelstacks venue. I’ll be seeing the Flaming Lips in the larger venue (I don’t even rally have a sense of where it is) in a few weeks. But last night I saw Gene Ween and Modest Mouse in the Levitt Pavillion. And while I’ll talk about the shows, I had to spend a few paragraphs talking about this amazing venue.

After going to Philly and spending $25 for parking that was almost a ten minute walk away, or traipsing to New York City ($14 just for the tunnel), imaging going to a venue and getting free, close parking (I sorta hoped that Modest Mouse would play “Convenient Parking, but they didn’t).

The city closes down a city block to let the music flow out onto the street.

The stage is small and there can’t be more than fifty yards of sloped grass to stand, sit or recline on. The grass goes wide in either direction, but the view is great from anywhere. I easily managed to get up really close. And the sound was outstanding–crystal clear and loud without being painful.

The stage is set up against gigantic old steel mills. During the day they are imposing and cool. But at night… We had seen them at night from the Casino parking lot. They are lit up with red and blue lights. And they are wicked cool looking.

But that’s nothing compared to seeing them up close. You can see parts of the stage in some of these pictures, but it’s really impossible to show how large these stacks are.

There is a concession building across the way with seats a bar and other nice amenities (this really isn’t a lace you’re going to see a ton of huge rock shows, I realize). There is all kinds of steel being used decoratively–including a bar of fire that crosses the street.

There is something so weird and cool about that gigantic colored backdrop–almost like an industrial Red Rocks.

The building was open until 11PM so I was able to get a cool Bethlehem Steel T-shirt and use the nice bathrooms before walking the two blocks to my car to whisk out of town (and to hit the Waffle House on the way out!)

I would like every future concert I go to to be there, thank you very much. There’s are a ton of free concerts there, and if I lived closer I’d go see some.

I happen to think this is one of the coolest photos I’ve ever taken.

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Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:30:16 +0000jprobichaudhttps://musicinsanity.ca/2015/07/20/ottawa-bluesfest-2015-day-11-the-final-day-temperance-movement-weird-al-yankovic/https://news.nationalpost.com/arts/music/you-are-what-you-parody-weird-al-on-polka-pop-stardom-and-punching-up/
Mon, 20 Jul 2015 16:45:20 +0000Special to National Posthttps://news.nationalpost.com/arts/music/you-are-what-you-parody-weird-al-on-polka-pop-stardom-and-punching-up/Weird Al Yankovic’s life hasn’t always been one big polka party. Some of his records have flopped; some of his spoofs have failed to find their marks; and he has fallen offstage while performing in his fat suit – “It’s probably better than not having any kind of cushioning,” he muses, “but it wasn’t that funny to me.”

Now, however, as he tours the world behind his #1 album, Mandatory Fun, and brings his high-production show to tens of thousands of people at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, one question arises: Is the accordion-wielding parodist now a pop star himself?

“Well …” he laughs, on the phone from his tour bus, “I hesitate to answer, because evidence would dictate that that’s probably true. I like to be the guy on the outside of the inner circle, poking fun at the people on the inside.”

Yankovic has skirted the edges of stardom before, as in 1984, when his Michael Jackson parody, “Eat it,” became a worldwide hit – even outselling the original in Australia. But it was always hard to believe he’d truly break through; in the lead-up to Mandatory Fun’s release, his record label, RCA, denied him the budget to make videos. Undeterred, he approached web portals from Funny or Die to The Wall Street Journal’s site and offered them exclusives if they’d fund the promotional clips. The results, including parodies of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (as “Handy”) and Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” (as “Tacky”), went viral, and helped make Mandatory Fun the first comedy album to top the U.S. charts since 1963.

[related_links /]

“It is one of those things I didn’t allow myself to ever want, because I thought, ‘That’s never going to happen,’” says Yankovic, in a voice much mellower than his adenoidal singing yelp. “And then the Grammy [for Best Comedy Album] was amazing. The fact that I got to perform a big-production number on the prime-time Emmys” – he spoofed Game of Thrones and Mad Men themes – “was insane. The things I’ve been allowed to do in this last year … the only word I can think [of] is ‘surrealistic.’”

Yankovic’s initial success grew out of an early-‘80s pop music monoculture where hits such as “Beat It” and “Like a Virgin” (which Yankovic spoofed, at Madonna’s own suggestion, as “Like a Surgeon”) remained hugely popular for long stretches of time. Since then, he says, “The cycle of popularity in general is a bit faster, but there will always be things that still somehow grab the zeitgeist.” While Yankovic himself mourns the death of rock music as a commercial force – “it’s not like it was when I was growing up, and that’s sad for me” – the planetary embrace of pop, and the ubiquity of songs such as “Blurred Lines” (which he spoofed as “Word Crimes”) has made it easier for his parodies to find traction.

The fact that I got to perform a big-production number on the prime-time Emmys was insane

Yankovic still favours rock for his pastiches, or imitations of the style of other artists: “First World Problems,” which takes off the Pixies’ spiky sound, casts him as a whining member of the 1% who complains about forgetting his gardener’s name. Yankovic aims to take the privileged down a few pegs. “That’s known as punching up,” he says. “You try to deflate bubbles of pretentiousness. When I first got hooked on Mad magazine” – an issue of which he guest-edited in April – “as an 11-year-old kid, that was what appealed to me: standing up to authority figures and demystifying the adult world.”

Yankovic has long lampooned his own status as a guy who is “White and Nerdy” (as in the title of his 2006 hit); this strategy seems particularly fitting now, with gender and race such hot-button topics. “Punching down, in many cases, is perceived as being actually violent. I’m very self-aware, and as a result, a lot of my humour is very self-deprecating.”

Crucially, he also celebrates the music he parodies, recreating the sounds of the original tracks in the studio and then live; in fact, some fans discover him through artists that they love whom he has parodied. “Primarily,” he says, “It’s the comedy that would have people coming back.”

And back, and back: Yankovic has superfans who follow him on tour and even get inked with his face and trademark cascade of brown curls. “I’m obviously very flattered, and it also puts extra pressure on me. When somebody’s got your image permanently tattooed on their skin, you don’t want to put out a horrible album and make them go, ‘Oh, why do I have Al on my butt?’”

Yankovic says that in fact, he’s giving up recording albums; he calls Mandatory Fun “a nice mic drop.” He wants to keep up with the pace of pop culture and release parodies and pastiches more quickly as singles, when they’re topical. At 55, he plans to speed up, not slow down, and indeed, he seems nearly ageless. But surely the older he gets, the harder it will be to parody a youthful star onstage?

“Well, you have to suspend your disbelief a little bit more,” he says. He has a cameo in the upcoming Neflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, “a prequel to a movie which came out 15 years ago, and [the actors are] 40-year-olds playing teenagers. At a certain point, that’s probably going to be part of the joke with me.”

Weird Al Yankovic plays a free show in Montreal on Tuesday night, with additional Canadian dates this week and in September. Details at weirdal.com. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp premieres on Netflix July 31.

Johnny Reid’s opening number might have been Which Way is Home, but there was little doubt that the man was very much at home on the big stage Sunday night, closing out this year’s edition of Bluesfest.

Nattily dressed in a blue suit and with a dozen musicians, including four horns and a pair of singers at his back, Reid proved to be an affable guy well-versed in delivering old-school, big-production entertainment.

Johnny Reid was the headliner on the Bell Stage on Sunday, the last night of RBC Ottawa Bluesfest .

Born in Scotland, the Canadian-raised singer now lives in Nashville. He brings a similar diversity to his music. The extended That Man Is Me was Sam Cooke-style soul. My Heart Beats Like a Drum was joyous power pop. A Woman Like You was country.

Through it all, Reid — 40 years old, a three-time Juno winner, and with a gravelly singing voice reminiscent of Rod Stewart’s — cavorted across that big stage, his dance moves with his two backing vocalists tightly choreographed.

Johnny Reid was the headliner on the Bell Stage on Sunday, the last night of RBC Ottawa Bluesfest .

“My job tonight is to make sure you have a good time,” he told us, his Scottish burr still intact. It was also, apparently, to give a good time to two of his four children. As Reid recorded the event on his smartphone, the crowd sang Happy Birthday to the duo.

Johnny Reid has yet to appear on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s hit list, but he can always hope.

In the meantime, the Grammy-winning parodist has plenty of fodder. His show included everyone from Kurt Cobain (the guitar-wielding Yankovic staggering around the stage in torn jeans and high angst, howling Smells Like Nirvana) to Green Day (the singer with maple leaf-emblazoned jacket performing Canadian Idiot — sample lyric: “They treat curling like it’s a real sport”) to Lady Gaga (Yankovic, in an upside-down ice cream cone hat, slicing and dicing the self-absorbed Gaga with Perform This Way).

His accordion came out for his opening number Now That’s What I Call Polka! and a later medley of mockery that included putting the boots to Billy Joel’s Piano Man.

As Yankovic and company performed or scurried offstage for their innumerable costume changes, videos played. They included a mock Celine Dion interview and an aluminum foil ad as Yankovic sang Foil, a spoof of Lorde’s Royals.

Humour is an individual matter, but Yankovic’s reputation as a parodist is deserved.

As different from Yankovic as night is from day, Shuggie Otis and his trio of backup musicians served up some electrifying blues, funk and soul. Otis, son of legendary blues bandleader Johnny Otis, is a masterful, serious-faced guitarist whose solos taunt and tease before abruptly tearing into their subject matter — woman troubles, life’s vagaries — like a razor-billed hawk. Otis dropped below the radar after a couple of well-received albums in the early 1970s, reappearing about a decade ago following re-releases. We’re delighted he returned.

“Weird Al” Yankovic performs on the last night of RBC Ottawa Bluesfest.